Jan 7, 2016 Friday Fictioneers
PHOTO PROMPT © Melanie Greenwood
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Genre: Flight Fantasy
In Plane Sight
©Janary 7th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Every day, two hazel-green eyes gazed from the perfectly polished glass windows of the little airport, and lingered longingly at the Cessna on the tarmac.
The being standing there (and whose eyes those were) seemed ancient. No one else noticed him (or her). S/he leaned on a broom. S/he appeared to be a small bronze statue. Any time people refocused, s/he seemed to not be there. People would shrug, look at their mobile phones and hurry on.
And nobody noticed that the Cessna remained parked.
One day, both vanished. Somewhere in space, a Cessna and a statue blossomed into flame.
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With thanks, to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Fairy Blog-Mother Extraordinaire, and to Melanie Greenwood for the photo-prompt.
Tags: Cessna, Fantasy, plane story
Jan 7, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Uncategorized
Word Count: 100 words of text, exactly
Genre: Realistic fiction
Parentheses
©January 7th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
The Cessna stood on the tarmac, polished and shining in the sun.
Seven-year old Julia read its tail fin: N173VP it read. She looked up at her father, round eyes worried: “Dad, will it take us all the way to Peachtree?”
Her father smiled tightly. “Yes, but we’ll have to flap our arms up and down, like this,” demonstrating it.
She laughed, her eyes still round. “It looks so tiny, Dad,” she said. She didn’t add, “I’m scared.”
“It’ll be all right, sweetheart,” he said. He didn’t add, “I’m scared, too.”
He was acutely claustrophobic.
The plane held. They survived.
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Thanks, as always, to our Fairy Blog-Mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting our wonderful mid-week writing salon, counter-intuitively titled Friday Fictioneers, and to Melanie Greenwood for the photograph prompt!
Tags: Claustrophobia, Original 100-word short story based on a photo-prompt, Parent and child, parenthetical remarks
Jan 7, 2016 Daily Life, Ramblings and Musings
A Bit of Abrupt Reality (Dog-Tail #3
©December 6th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
I went to the woods today — TWICE!
The first time, I went with the Hod. It was a beautiful day, and she was excellent for the first part of our walk. Then, on the way back, she was VERY bad — ran off and didn’t come when I called (and this is the first time she’s done that — must be adolescent rebellion), darted amongst trees in a tantalizing manner, then vanished. I yelled out her name several times with increasing panic in my voice, then said, “I’m going!” and set off briskly back down the main path, close to tears. My husband told me not to worry when I called him on the phone, semi-hysterical. I told him I wasn’t worried that she would run away — I was worried that she’d find her way home (which she can) without me, and I was terrified of the traffic near our home.
Well, I needn’t have worried. I heard the familiar jingling of her tags, and turned around, to see her running towards me, nose to the path. This dog tracks perfectly.
Alas, I WASN’T pleased, however. I behaved like those parents whose children disappear in a public place, then yell at them in relief when they reappear. So, I scolded her, and she let me put the leash back on her. She may have been abashed, but it’s hard to tell. Her tail was wagging, and she seemed cheerful. And her legs were very wet.
We went home (in icy silence on my part) and I gave her a half-bath from the chest down. I could now see how utterly filthy she had gotten — the water ran brown for a long time. She must’ve have found a cold mud-puddle.
Anyway, she was very good after that — for a while, at any rate — until she stole some food that my husband had left out. She was a bad dog today!
After a while doing various errands, I realized I’d lost a lovely earring that a friend had given me, so I determinedly set off to the woods to find it. I retraced all my paths, knowing in the way that I know when an object I’ve “lost” is near me somehow. Didn’t find it. On the way, though, I found what I think was the source of Holly’s distraction: A family of three deer, two adults and a fawn, leaping gracefully across icy slopes. It was arresting and beautiful. Then, I continued my search, which was fruitless.
On my way home, I thought that I would definitely find my earring, if not today, then tomorrow (I really don’t like losing things, more so than most people, I think, because I go crazy looking for them, and in most cases, find them).
Reached home, thinking that perhaps it would be on the floor, if I got lucky.
And my daughter opened the living room door and said, “I FOUND it!” (It had been on the floor — near the radiator!)
I am never wrong about things that I’ve lost that I know will be found.
AND I clocked in at 5 1/2 miles of walking today.
Perhaps, I should just pretend I’ve lost an earring and go to the woods twice every day, instead of once.
And take Holly with me.
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